Blog

Summer Parish Assignment

I found out this week that I will be living at St. Gabriel the Archangel parish during the second half of this summer, and I'm looking forward to the experience! Please pray for all the St. Louis seminarians who will be going to various parishes and assignments this summer.

New Article Posted - Taking Pictures During Liturgies

Offeratory Procession for Graduation Mass

I posted a new article today concerning photography during liturgies such as Mass, Confirmation, a Wedding, etc. In it, I describe five basic things anyone taking pictures at a liturgy should do:

  1. Turn off your flash.
  2. Don't move around all over the place.
  3. Turn off the camera's sound.
  4. Turn off the 'focus assist' light.
  5. Turn off the camera's LCD.

But most of all, a person wishing to take pictures during a liturgy should remember this golden rule: Thou Shalt Respect, and Not Distract, when Taking Pictures During Liturgies!

Read the article in its entirety here.

Two-Word Movie Review for Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Two words: utterly ridiculous.

No, I'm not talking about the fact that there are people coming back from the dead, undying monkeys, or other such characters. I'm talking simply about the plot. You see, I thought the writers for this film would brilliantly tie together the hundreds of loose ends from the second movie ('Dead Man's Chest'), adding a dose of action and fun, to create the best film of the summer. I thought wrong.

There were plenty of laugh-out-loud funny parts, and there was very little objectionable material in the movie... so I guess 'At World's End' has that going for it. The problem is that there is way too much in the plot that didn't make any sense at all—not even a tiny bit. And I feel robbed of a few more precious minutes of my life because I stayed until the end of the credits to see the boring and non-informative scene the producers decided to stick in there.

Some Crazy Bird Behavior - The Common Grackle

In my first attempt at posting flash video the the web, I'm putting up a rather strange clip I took using my Mom's PowerShot S3 IS of a 'common grackle' (kind of a fitting name for an annoying bird) making squawks while puffing up his feathers. I'm not too sure what prompts this behavior, but it seems that the grackles do it only when other grackles are around.